Texas beats Coppin State 69-46

Updated 7:56 am, Tuesday, November 13, 2012

AUSTIN — Usually, this would be the time of year when the Texas Longhorns would be molding themselves into the team they hoped to become.

For now, though, they're stuck impersonating a team they hope they'll never have to be.

In Monday's 69-46 victory over Coppin State at the Erwin Center, the Longhorns played zone defense for 40 minutes, rode one freshman floor leader until his legs went wobbly and had another freshman splitting time between point guard and power forward.

If they had the services of either Myck Kabongo or Jaylen Bond at their disposal, it's unlikely any of that would have happened. And even though coach Rick Barnes said he has an idea of how his team will be different when it's at full strength, two games into the season, he still can't be sure.

Kabongo, the sophomore who started every game at point guard last season, remains unavailable while the NCAA investigates who paid for an offseason trip he took to Cleveland. He hasn't been deemed ineligible, but UT (2-0) will not play him until he has been cleared.

Bond, a sophomore forward, has missed both of the Longhorns' first two games because of an ankle injury.

Without that duo, UT committed 26 turnovers, the most they'd had in any game in 15 years under Barnes. Eight of those turnovers were made by Javan Felix, who dished out nine assists but clearly battled fatigue in leading the Longhorns in minutes played for the second game in a row.

“I can assure you, no one wants Myck Kabongo back more than (Felix),” Barnes said. “He wants me off his back.”

Barnes said he hopes Kabongo's situation will be resolved soon, but there's no guarantee a ruling will be made before UT heads to Hawaii for the Maui Invitational next week.

In the meantime, the Longhorns will take encouragement where they can find it. Sheldon McClellan scored a career-high 25 points Monday, and UT held the Eagles (0-2) to 24.6 percent shooting.

Freshman center Prince Ibeh led the defensive effort, with Barnes saying he “totally controlled the game.”

And when Coppin State coach Fang Mitchell looked at the stat sheet and saw Ibeh only was credited with three blocks — and UT with only six overall — he was sure it was a misprint.

“I must have been watching another game,” Mitchell said. “If (Coppin State's shots) weren't rejected, they were intimidated.”